


Slipping

by Juliet316



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Ficlet, Gen, Mind Manipulation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-25
Updated: 2013-11-25
Packaged: 2018-01-02 14:04:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1057666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juliet316/pseuds/Juliet316
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claire, in the aftermath of the events of Alpha's second attack on the Dollhouse, isn't dealing the revelations she's found out about herself well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slipping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lily_zen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lily_zen/gifts).



> Written for lily_zen at fic_promptly

She has panic attacks.

As far as she knows she's had these panic attacks since Alpha's first attack. She's never been comfortable in the more open spaces of the Dollhouse, nor was she ever at ease in a crowded situation. It made staff meetings hell, and the rare times she had to go out onto the floor to actually treat an active feel like she was going to pass out at any minute. She more than preferred the solitude of her office; that while not messy, or cramped, was just small enough and filled with enough furniture to make it feel snug and safe.

If she was anybody else, she'd diagnose it as agoraphobia. Now, in the aftermath of Alpha's second assault on the Dollhouse, Doctor Saunders (or Whiskey, or whatever the hell her real name is or was) wonders if Topher didn't just simply program them into her. A 'personality quirk' in order to make what was obviously meant to be a long - term imprint more 'real.' For some strange reason, she thought finding out she was a Doll would somehow make the panic attacks magically go away.

It just made them worse.

The panic attacks were coming more and more now. More and more she wanted nothing more than to just stay in her small office and never come out. Additionally they were getting worse and not helped by the fear. Fear of somehow slipping up and going into a full - blown panic attack in front of DeWitt or Langton. If Topher noticed, she knew that, whether the guilt was a facade or not, he was too full of it to say anything to DeWitt, but what if she slipped up in front of an Active and they innocently said something to their handler? 

She knew what fate lay for Dolls that were deemed broken.

Saunders just wondered why she was not sent to the Attic in the first place.


End file.
